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Rafa: Aquilani Close to First Team Debut!


WhiskeyJar
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Comparing what, Ewood to Goodison?

 

If ever anyone was technically correct!

 

This all sounds very Houllier, when he opened up a bit, had two 2-2 home draws and then reverted to type. It can't work.

 

We spent what transfer money there was on players chosen to embellish our attacking qualities - Johnson and Aquilani. Every time Glen goes forward he creates havoc, but how often does he do it?

 

Aquilani can't be risked because we might squander a one goal lead against Debrecen.

 

If people want to hide behind Fitness Concerns - for either player - then that's their right.

 

If you're expecting it to get any better further down the line, good luck with that one.

 

If you want to ignore that we are gradually imporving our fortunes then be my guest. Positives are finally coming through, and if Rafa wants to see how our defence acts without two DMs then I am going to go ahead and support that formation against Fiorentina.

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I said it would be an sackable offense to start Aquilani against Fiorentina and not give him a single minute in the game against Blackburn where our team was crying out for some creativity, a few forward passes, a CM making an intelligent forward run etc to win us that game.

 

It would confirm to me that it has got nothing to do with fitness, but all to do with the fact our manager actually is happy with the performance from ou CM which in reality is the most lacklustre CM in the league and that he has spent half of our transfer budget on a player he does not know where and how to use.

 

Sounds familiar?

 

It certainly does and whatever faith I had left in the manager is now well and truly gone, he has come out and confirmed my concerns as well, he has well and truly lost it.

 

You cant say that he is losing plot when he is using to DMs that help out the defence now when we are shipping in the most. We are improving and with Aquilani starting tomorrow night I have no reason to be as cynical as you and Red Nick.

 

Honestly you are as bad as Red Nick.

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This all sounds very Houllier, when he opened up a bit, had two 2-2 home draws and then reverted to type. It can't work.

 

.

 

Can we stop with the lazy comparisons?

 

Ged tried attacking football for two matches and then reverted to type, Ged stood by in 2002 watched a team that was crying out for width and bought two centre midfielders, one of whom was a defensive midfielder.

 

Rafa has never shown those tendencies, every time we have looked at the team and thought about a weakness he has addressed it, he hasn't got it right, Pennant, Dossena, Babel highlight that, but you don't find yourself listening to Rafa thinking 'Was he watching the same match?'

 

On Saturday he said, quite clearly, not good enough. During Houlliers last season, he was suggesting we deserved more out of Leicester away!

 

You might like to think that it enhances your reservations a bit more, a nice bit of scaremongering 'Just like Houllier was' but the situation is far different from Ged and you know it. It is a lazy comparison and one best left to tabloid editors.

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Torres set for Euro return

 

Torres set for Euro return - Liverpool FC

 

Rafa Benitez has revealed he is hopeful of naming Fernando Torres amongst Liverpool's substitutes for Wednesday's encounter with Fiorentina at Anfield - but Albert Riera is a doubt.

 

The Spain striker has not figured for the Reds since the Champions League fixture in Lyon on November 4 due to a groin injury.

 

However, following a period of recuperation at Melwood, Torres is edging ever nearer to a first-team return.

 

"He took part in a full training session yesterday and he will train again today in a light session," Benitez told Liverpoolfc.tv. "If everything is okay, he will be on the bench (against Fiorentina).

 

"It will be better to have him on the bench, let him have a proper warm-up and afterwards give him some minutes."

 

The Reds could be without Albert Riera after the winger sustained a knock against Blackburn.

 

Asked if he had any other fitness concerns following the weekend's action, Benitez replied: "Riera had some problems, so we will have to wait and see how he reacts to treatment with the physios. The rest of the squad is okay."

 

Meanwhile, the Spaniard confirmed Diego Cavalieri is in contention to make his third appearance of the season in the meeting with La Viola.

 

"It could be an opportunity for him," said the gaffer. "We will analyse him in training today and maybe he will have a chance."

 

----------------------------------------

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You cant say that he is losing plot when he is using to DMs that help out the defence now when we are shipping in the most. We are improving and with Aquilani starting tomorrow night I have no reason to be as cynical as you and Red Nick.

 

Honestly you are as bad as Red Nick.

 

Its all well and good to not be too adventurous from CM if you have any half decent options in the attacking roles.

 

We had the utter shite El Zhar, N`Gog and Kuyt and a Gerrard well underperforming from his usual standards.

 

The game/team was crying out for a player like Aquilani or even a Pacheco, but we all know thats unlikely from Rafa.

 

This was the final straw for me.

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Can we stop with the lazy comparisons?

 

Ged tried attacking football for two matches and then reverted to type, Ged stood by in 2002 watched a team that was crying out for width and bought two centre midfielders, one of whom was a defensive midfielder.

 

Rafa has never shown those tendencies, every time we have looked at the team and thought about a weakness he has addressed it, he hasn't got it right, Pennant, Dossena, Babel highlight that, but you don't find yourself listening to Rafa thinking 'Was he watching the same match?'

 

On Saturday he said, quite clearly, not good enough. During Houlliers last season, he was suggesting we deserved more out of Leicester away!

 

You might like to think that it enhances your reservations a bit more, a nice bit of scaremongering 'Just like Houllier was' but the situation is far different from Ged and you know it. It is a lazy comparison and one best left to tabloid editors.

You're right.

 

Houllier went out of Europe in 6 matches not 5 and at least he won a fair chunk of his opening dozen or so games before the wheels came off.

 

And it wasn't Rafa who was talking about the people in the stadium appreciating what they were trying to do (y'know, as opposed to the 99.9% of clueless cunts who 'claim' to support Liverpool and never set foot inside Anfield).

 

Oh no hang on - he did didn't he?

 

And it wasn't Rafa who got a title challenge up to game 36 and then watched the next one collapse before Christmas.

 

Oh hang on - he has.

 

And it isn't Rafa talking an endless stream of smokescreen gibberish to any flunkie who can type it down fast enough.

 

Oops.

 

And Rafa isn't spending money on players who are deemed unworthy of the club.

 

Hmmm.

 

Blip?

 

Naaaah.

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Its all well and good to not be too adventurous from CM if you have any half decent options in the attacking roles.

 

We had the utter shite El Zhar, N`Gog and Kuyt and a Gerrard well underperforming from his usual standards.

 

The game/team was crying out for a player like Aquilani or even a Pacheco, but we all know thats unlikely from Rafa.

 

This was the final straw for me.

 

This is getting tedious.

 

For whaever reason Rafa didnt play Aquilani, he didnt think that he would of made an impact on the game. I

 

IT could of all backfired and you will be sitting across the room screaming blue murder because he played him too soon costing us the point.

 

Too much preassure, not fit enough, not adjusted, not settled, not the right formation, not the right system, not the right time, global warming, the lazania he ate last night, the virus that he had....could be a million things why he didnt play him yet you seem set to hang Rafa for it.

 

Let it go and lets see how he performs in a pressure-less game where Rafa can set him up as he want to.

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I dont get why people are making a big deal out of him not playing. So far we have kept a few clean sheets and we are finally looking like a powerhouse defensive unit, with a few hicups.

 

It was Rafa decision not to play him reasons unknown to us, fit or not fit.

 

You are almost as mental as Nick, just in a different way.

 

Its all understandable for me now, there was no way the Ialian short arse Aquilani on 1,86m would cope in the game against Blackburn beeing up against all those horrible, nasty dirty tackling English players in that team.

 

 

I am sure you heard this many times in your life, perhaps even on a weekly basis, but size isn't everything.

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You are not the only one finding it bizarre.

 

Put it this way, if Mourinho had bought an injured played for Inter for £20m, the same people who are supporting Rafa here will be laughing their tits off. "Look, you wanted Mourinho to replace Rafa, look at his transfer record, he even spunked £20m on an injured player this summer and he hasn't even played yet", they would have said.

 

You pay what a player is worth. If the player is injured, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out he will be cheaper. If Ronaldo get a knee ligament damage next week and if Real get ready to sell him in January, they wouldn't even receive HALF the money they paid for him 5 months ago.

 

When Xabi left and when it became clear the owners were behaving like cunts (again), the last thing we needed to do was to spend £20m on someone who wasn't going to play for 3/4 months. But, we did. It was one mother fucking gamble and it has back fired hugely this season. It has back fired to such an extent that our title challenge was over by October after finishing 2nd just a few months ago.

 

He may become the next Zidane and win us 3 titles in the next 4 years but signing him for this season has been a major failure. I don't care how people dress it up to support Rafa, he has to take sole blame for this for this season.[/QUOTE]

 

I would settle for that though..

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Eight in fifteen games when we've scored 33.

 

Worth changing your whole game plan for? Or would the coaching effort be better spent on the eleven conceded from set pieces?

 

We have scored 24 from open play.

 

The site I`ve taken this from has not been updated since before the Everton game.

 

But comparing our stats with the other "big" clubs this is how it looked then.

 

Goals conceded from open play and set pieces:

Liverpool: 8 - 12

Chelsea: 3 - 5

Mancs: 11 - 1

Arsenal: 7 - 8

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We have scored 24 from open play.

 

The site I`ve taken this from has not been updated since before the Everton game.

 

But comparing our stats with the other "big" clubs this is how it looked then.

 

Goals conceded from open play and set pieces:

Liverpool: 8 - 12

Chelsea: 3 - 5

Mancs: 11 - 1

Arsenal: 7 - 8

 

I'm not sure what point that makes. The point I was making is that the goals we are conceding from open play are not as big a concern as the ones we are conceding from set pieces. If we could wipe most of those out by tweaking or drilling our marking system, we would not need to play such a defensive way in open play which was clearly not the plan for this season considering the attacking nature of the players brought in.

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Sarcastic comments, glib statements etc etc.

 

So what are you comparing exactly?

 

Ged finished second in his third season, and the following season finished fifth, but won the littlewoods cup. His fifth season saw us beat Newcastle to fourth place, out of all cup competitions early, so yes exactly the same.

 

It's a lazy, non existent comparison and one that is solely designed to appeal to the idiots and knee jerkers who jump on every little detail to confirm their point of view.

 

If you look hard enough you can find a number of similarities between Rafa and Roy Evans as well, you could do it for Souness also, and here's the crux, you could also do it for Kenny!

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What?

 

I never even mentioned the over reliance on Gerrard and the injury prone goalscorer!

 

Look, is it an exact replica? Of course not, even if the only difference is that Rafa is three times the manager Gerard was.

 

But are there similarities? Lazy or whatever you want to call them, they're there.

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I'm not sure what point that makes. The point I was making is that the goals we are conceding from open play are not as big a concern as the ones we are conceding from set pieces. If we could wipe most of those out by tweaking or drilling our marking system, we would not need to play such a defensive way in open play which was clearly not the plan for this season considering the attacking nature of the players brought in.

 

I agee with you and the numbers should prove that compared to what I see as our main rivals our problems at the back is defending set pieces like you said.

 

So considering Lucas tendency to give away silly free kicks in our own half how safe is it to use him compared to Aquilani who also is 13 cm higher and would most likely be an asset defending set pieces because of this.

 

The excsuses from Rafa and his posse are ridiculous or at least straw clutching at best.

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What?

 

I never even mentioned the over reliance on Gerrard and the injury prone goalscorer!

 

Look, is it an exact replica? Of course not, even if the only difference is that Rafa is three times the manager Gerard was.

 

But are their similarities? Lazy or whatever you want to call them, they're there.

 

There are only there so can have all the ammo you want to shoot at Rafa. Bottom line is, Rafa is not coming to end of his tenure so your stats and points are moot.

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What?

 

I never even mentioned the over reliance on Gerrard and the injury prone goalscorer!

 

Look, is it an exact replica? Of course not, even if the only difference is that Rafa is three times the manager Gerard was.

 

But are there similarities? Lazy or whatever you want to call them, they're there.

 

You are not highlighting similarities because they exist, you are cherry picking similar incidents and slim similarities to emphasise a point! It's cheap and not fair.

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